Crossword Genius

Shop assistant is large and extremely slothful, sadly (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

salesgirl

'shop assistant' is the definition.

'is large and extremely slothful sadly' is the wordplay.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'sadly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'slothful' with its centre taken out is 'sl'.
'is'+'large'+'sl'='islargesl'
'islargesl' anagrammed gives 'SALESGIRL'.

(Another definition for salesgirl that I've seen is " She sells".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app